Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Who's Next at Deadspin?

FanHouse's Michael David Smith lays odds on who might succeed Will Leitch at Deadspin. Many of the usual suspects are mentioned (Daulerio, KSK guys, MJD), some long shots (Brooks, Nik Richie, Sarah Schorno), and a handful of guys who would probably cause the Deadspin readership to revolt (Shanoff, Simmons).

If I'm running it I probably give it to Daulerio who, despite his reputation for outlandishness, is a solid writer who seems to care about sports more than he cares about becoming some larger than life character. I fear that most of the rest of those candidates -- particularly the KSK guys -- would be fairly disastrous in that a little of what they do best (audaciousness; shock; creative profanity) goes a long way. I get a nice laugh out of their stuff when taken in small doses, but I fear the site would become a parody of itself if someone gave them 20 posts a day.

3 comments:

Kevin -- last fall Shanoff did a weekly college football roundup for Deadspin, and the commenter response was decidedly hostile. Granted, they're hostile to almost everything, but this seemed to have a strain of legitimate, honest hostility to it that doesn't normally come through. Not as bad as they've been with Robert Weintraub's contributions there, but still not kind.

I've read Deadspin on and off for a while now. Used to read it everyday, but the 20+ posts a day were too many for me, considering how many of them were about the NBA (very little interest) and the NFL (no interest at all). If Deadspin allowed me to put just the baseball/hockey/soccer stuff on my feeder, I'd be back.

That said, Daulerio, I think, has occasionally shown an ability to write very, very well, but I wouldn't mind bringing in someone totally new. AJ will keep the current readership, but, honestly, I can't stand the current readership. The rabid attempts to outwit the previous commenter by quoting an earlier post...ugh. There's no discussion, and, generally, no entertainment either. Blow up Deadspin, I say, and start over.